[Review] Atomic Vulture - Into Orbit

October 08, 2014

This band from Belgium dates back to 2011 where they begun as a 4-member band but after the vocalist left the band they decided to continue as an instrumental trio. Some months after the departure of the singer the band releases digitally its first demo which hit the underground heavy rock lovers right in the stomach, (well at least those who listened to the demo :P ).Pretty quick their first fans appeared allover europe and their 3 track demo gained its place in many webradio playlists and radio shows. Six months later they make their second release, a 3-track EP named "Planet Emerald" and a worthy "successor" of their first release along with the single "Moon Base" which was released 5 months later.

Heavy, fuzzed-out, swirling grooves, thunderous driving beats and temperamental drumming are the characteristics that grabs one's attention immediately on Atomic Vulture's tracks. Their tracks have a nice atmosphere often swinging between heavy grooves and a more ambient style not forgetting to add some psyched or even doom aesthetics from time to time.

This time, Atomic Vulture came back with a new release which is their first full length album entitled "Into Orbit". The 5 out of the 8 tracks of the album are the ones that were released in their previous EPs (Winter Blues, Moon Base, Tunnel vision, Missing Link, Spiders) but recorded again and mixed. The rest three tracks are the new songs (Rocket Ride, Tequila, Mos Eisley Spaceport) with "Mos Eisley Spaceport" being the last track of the album and a personal favorite out of those three.
The band's attitude remains pretty much the same as in their previous releases, showing that they've made their choices concerning the style of their sound. Nevertheless the band seems to have chosen a different approach in the production of this album than in their previous releases. The dirty groove is still present and it surely is even heavier but the sound is much more bright and clear in an overall "polished" production. They seem to be leaving behind the more dull-colored, retro-style, low-fi, dirty feeling that their first productions had. Probably it's a matter of taste but I think their previous sound was more fit to the music they play and in my opinion that was a nice, distinctive characteristic of their style. Surely the sound result of the album is far from disappointing, as a matter of fact it is a very good production, but being fond of their older sound I was eager for a full album based on the same aesthetics.

In conclusion, if you liked the previous releases of Atomic Vulture then you're gonna like this one too, if you have never heard of them this album is nice chance for getting to know them. All their releases so far were more than promising and I believe we have more and good stuff to get from Atomic Vulture in the future.